124 BRITISH FOSSIL REPTILES. 



On the under or palatal surface of the skull (PI. 1 B, fig. 2) the niaxillo-prcmaxillary 

 suture runs almost transversely across, as in the Crocodilus rhomhifcr, figured by Cuvier 

 in pi. iii, fig. 2, of the volume above cited. There is no appearance of the vomer 

 upon the palate. The palatal bones (20), though somewhat broader anteriorly, and more 

 abruptly truncate than in any existing Crocodile that I have seen, are more like those 

 bones in the true Crocodiles than in the Alligators. The portion between the post- 

 palatal vacuities is longer and narrower ; the posterior end of the palatines is nar- 

 rower, and the part of the bone anterior to the notch receiving the posterior angle of 

 the palatal plate of the maxillary does not expand in advancing forwards, as it does in 

 the Alligators : in the Alligator niger this expansion is greater than in the All. liicius, 

 and the posterior ends of the palatines are also remarkably expanded, and applied to 

 the anterior borders of the pterj^goids almost as far as their articulation with the 

 ectopterygoids, the postpalatal vacuities not at all encroaching on the pterygoids, as they 

 are seen to do at 24, PI. 1 B, fig. 2, and also in the figure of the Crocodilus rhoinhifcr above 

 cited, and in other true Crocodiles. The form of the pterygoids (24, PI. 1 B, fig. 2) is 

 peculiar in the Crocodilus Hastivgsice -. they are contracted anteriorly, and send forwards 

 a short truncated process to meet the narrow posterior ends of the palatines (20) ; and 

 the same character being repeated in another skull of the same species, from Hordle, 

 also in the collection of Lady Hastings, in which this part of the bony palate (PI. 1 A, 

 fig. 3) is more perfect than in the subject of PI. 1 B, fig. 2, it may be regarded with 

 some confidence as specific. In the Crocodilus chamjjsoides of Slieppy it will be seen, 

 by fig. 2, PI. 2 B, that the pterygoids (24, 24) are not produced where they join the 

 palatines (20). In the Alligators, the posterior border of the conjoined pterygoids is 

 deeply notched behind the posterior nostrils, the angles of the notch being slightly 

 extended backwards : in most Crocodiles, the sides of the notch are so developed that 

 it does not sink deeper than the line of the posterior border of the pterygoids ; and this 

 modification is exaggerated in the Crocodilus Hastingsice (PL 1 A, fig. 3) in which the notch 

 in question is merely the interval between two slender diverging processes from the 

 middle of the back part of the pterygoids, 24. The posterior aperture of the nasal 

 passages is wholly surrounded in the Crocodilus TIastingsia by the horizontal plate of 

 the pterygoids, and has the same position and aspect as in the Alligators ; but its form 

 is heart-shaped, with the apex directed backwards, and the antcro-posterior diameter 

 exceeding the transverse one. I have not met with this form of the posterior nostril 

 in any other species of Crocodilian ; but it is repeated in two individuals of the Croc. 

 liastingsicB, and may be regarded as a specific character. 



The ectopterygoid, 25, PI. 1 A, fig. 3, PI. 1 B, fig. 2 {d, fig. 2, pi. iii, 'Ossemens 

 Fossiles,' t. V, pt. ii) articulates with a larger proportion of the outer surface of the 

 pterygoids (24) in the Crocodiles than in the Alligators : it agrees with the Crocodiles 

 in the extent of this articulation in the Croc. Ilastingsia. 



. 22 — 22 Q , 



The number of teeth in this species is . ,^_., — o4. 



